The
sudden outburst of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has left the entire world to
a standstill. COVID-19 is caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome
Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). As per the report from the WHO, more than 4.5
million people have been infected by SARS-CoV-2 with more than 3,00,000 deaths across
the globe. As of now, there is no therapeutic drug or vaccine approved for the
treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Hence, the outbreak of COVID-19 poses a
massive threat to humans. Due to the time taking process of new drug design and
development, drug repurposing might be the only viable solution to tackle
COVID-19. RNA‐dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) catalyzes SARS-CoV-2 RNA
replication, i.e. the synthesis of
single-stranded RNA genomes, an absolutely necessary step for the survival and
growth of the virus. Thus, RdRp is an obvious target for antiviral drug design.
Interestingly, several plant-derived polyphenols have been shown to inhibit
enzymatic activities of RdRp of various RNA viruses including polio-virus type
1, parainfluenza virus type 3, and respiratory syncytial virus etc. More
importantly, natural polyphenols have been used as a dietary supplementation
for humans for a long time and played a beneficial role in immune homeostasis.
Therefore, we were curious to study the binding of dietary polyphenols with
RdRp of SARS-CoV-2 and assess their potential as an effective therapy for
COVID-19. In this present work, we made a library of twenty potent polyphenols that
have shown substantial therapeutic effects against various diseases. The
polyphenols were successfully docked in the catalytic pocket of RdRp of SARS-CoV
and SARS-CoV-2, and detailed studies on ADME prediction, toxicity prediction
and target analysis were performed. The study reveals that EGCG, quercetagetin,
and myricetin strongly bind to the active site of SARS-CoV-2 RdRp. Our studies
suggest that EGCG, quercetagetin, and myricetin can inhibit RdRp and represent
an effective therapy for COVID-19.